Okutama II

Okutama was so beautiful, I had to go back a second time to see more. This time Scarlett came along for the ride which was much more manageable than last week's fiasco. I was able to even grab a seat for the whole duration. From there, we went to Hikawa Gorge while waiting for the bus. We took photos of the bridge and went down to the river basin. The autumn colors were still very much in full effect and added a lot to the overall ambiance of this peaceful corner. We caught our bus after a couple of minutes and we were off to Okutama Lake. We passed by the main portion of the lake and it was outstanding, I half-wanted to just go down the bus to check it out but we were also on a tight schedule and were a bit behind already.

We got off at a bus stop before one of the main bridges and got to take photos of perfect reflection shots of the surrounding lakes and mountains. We descended again but this time there was a floating bridge that ran across the lake connecting the two sides. It was really fun to cross the bridge, we ate breakfast in the middle. I ate some onigiri which embarassingly had a lot of pieces falling down the bridge. We took our time taking in the amazing scenery before finally proceeding to the other side which formally marks the start of the hike.Read more